PSP thumbnails in XnView Browser

[XnTriq]

• <-- Moderator's note: This topic has been split off from “Help with XnView Shell Extension Setup 64bits” -->

I'm still unable to see all of my PSP thumbnails in the XnView Brower. I can open them without a problem I just cannot see the thumbnail in the browser. What am I doing wrong?

PSP Image

[ckb1183]

Thank you for your response. I had previously read that posting but it appeared it had to do with opening PSP documents. I do not have that problem - my problem is seeing them in the browser. As I browse that posting I see a question as to whether the writer has the Thumbnail Handler installed on his computer. I did try that some time ago but that didn't help so I uninstalled it. Then you inquired about this:

could it be that Paint Shop Pro's Thumbnail Shell Extension...
%CommonProgramFiles%\Jasc Software Inc\JascThumbShellExt\JascThumbShellExt.dll or
%CommonProgramFiles%\Corel\PSPThumbShellExt\PSPThumbShellExt.dll

Those are not on my computer either

Finally at the end you post this ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/PaintShopPro/X/ ... ellExt.exe - is this the download necessary to fix this problem? If this is the fix can you tell me which folder to extract these files to? I am on Vista 64 bit OS



I really, really appreciate your help on this.

ckb

[ckb1183]

bump

[XnTriq]

Both the official Paint Shop Pro Thumbnail Shell Extension (JascThumbShellExt.dll/PSPThumbShellExt.dll) and Bot Productions's PSP Thumbnail Handler (PSPThumb.dll) are aimed at enabling Windows Explorer to display thumbnails of Paint Shop Pro's various proprietary file formats.

Jasc Software had always made the formats' specifications publicly available to developers.
AFAIK, that policy was discontinued when the company was acquired by Corel in 2004.

I did a little more investigating and indeed the layer styles have been changed in PSP X2 and made incompatible with earlier versions of PSP. They are also no longer compatible with Photoshop when saved as a .psd according to the literature as well.

The material mentioned a compatibility option when saving to make it work with earlier versions but of course if something is done in a style layer that would have to be adjusted or not saved so it might destroy part of the effect given to an image.

So the only complete solution I see is to use version 11 and under or make a clean break and only use X2 and subsequent versions.

I'm actually a Paint Shop Pro user myself, but I haven't upgraded since version 9.
For my tests I relied on the X2 samples found in calendar-tutorial.zip from Michele's Paint Shop Newbie 101.

• 
  XnView v1.96.1 (Tools » Options » Browser » Thumbnails » Appearance » [×] Use high quality, 120×120px)

• 
  ThumbsPlus v7.2.0.2251 (120×120px)

Under Windows 2000 SP4 I'm not able to spot any differences whatsoever between the thumbnails generated by...

• 
  Jasc Thumbnail Shell Extension v1.0.1.0
  Corel PSP Thumbnail Shell Extension v2.0.0.0
  Bot Productions PSP Thumbnail Handler v2.10.49.0 (32-bit Edition)

[ckb1183]

So if I am reading this response correctly you are saying I shouldn't be having a problem?

I adjusted the browser to what you used in the example: XnView v1.96.1 (Tools » Options » Browser » Thumbnails » Appearance » [×] Use high quality, 120×120px)

Even after doing that not all my thumbnails appear - here is an example of what I see



As you can see some have pictures and others are merely colors. The colors represent the bottom layer of the psp saved document.

They have all been saved in PSP format to be compatible with version 7 and up. The info you supplied from "The Tech Guy" seemed to think the solution was using only version 12 and that is the only version I have on this computer. I find that if I change the ones that do not appear to be compatible with version X2 only, the image shows up in the browser. So if the solution is to change every PSP saved image as compatible with version X2 only, why do so many of the images show that were saved as compatible with version 7 and up?

Okay here's another swing on it. As luck would have it, yesterday I bought a new desktop computer for my husband. The OS is Vista 32bit - I opened the same tube file and all the thumbnails appear. So that says to me it's a 64 bit issue. If the intended fix for that is the 64 bit shell extension I have already installed that.

What are your thoughts??????? My thought is to scream. lol

[XnTriq]

Hello ckb

So if I am reading this response correctly you are saying I shouldn't be having a problem?

Since your files were saved as v7 compatible and not in the new X2 format, XnView and all the shell extensions should be able to read them — in theory, that is...

As you can see some have pictures and others are merely colors. The colors represent the bottom layer of the psp saved document.

I think the problem has been explained very well in this post:

When I open a psp image made with v7 in xnview, it displays the background layer (and ONLY the background layer). So, if your psp's background layer is white (or any other solid color), then you will just see a white (or other color) image.
Ideally, xnview should merge the layers when displaying such images (the same way it does with similar psd images).

Pierre has previously confirmed this limitation:

It appears that layers are not supported for pspimage files (Paint Shop Pro), in the current release version of XnView. Only the bottom background layer is displayed for the thumbnail.

Might this be addressed in a future version?

Yes currently only background layer, but i'll add in a future version all layers

Another odd thing is the fact that XnView doesn't render a drop shadow around all of the thumbnails

• 
  [ z00m ]

————————————————————————————————————————————————>8

Forum references:

• Format .pspimage
• How to preserve transparency il a .tub -> .psd conversion
• pspimage layers support
• Alien Skin Splat and the .rfr format
• thumbnail problem in browser
• Browser Preview psp files
• New image format
• .psp to .psd
• donation?
• problem opening some pspimage files
• PSP Image

[ckb1183]

Gosh what a bummer, but maybe Pierre will include it in the next version. Thank you so much for all the help you provided. It's truly appreciated.

ckb